Optimize your 3D file with Sculpteo

Once your 3D file loaded into your account, Sculpteo offers a set of tools to develop your file and optimize it for 3D printing online. For each of your 3D file, you can hollow out your 3D model or setup a 3D printing series of 20 units or more.

The purpose of these features is to provide the users of Sculpteo the possibility to manage the life of their 3D file directly from their online interface without returning to their 3D modeling software. This saves time to realize a set of simple tasks on your 3D models.

Hollowing

The hollowing tool allows you to hollow out your object automatically. To use, simply activate this feature by clicking on "Hollowing" in the menu on the left. Our algorithms do the job automatically. You simply need to place at least two holes that will evacuate the printing material unused and present inside of your object. To place a hole, simply click the desired location in the 3D viewer. Once the two holes placed successively, just click "Done". This option allows you to reduce the amount of material used to print your 3D object and thus its printing prices. For more information, you can watch the video below or read our article on the 'Hollowing' functionality.

Activate the option in the left menu:

Once the “hollowing” option is activated in our system, all you need to do is to position the holes and then validate by clicking on “Done”. As you can see, by reducing the amount of materials used to 3D your part, you also reduce the price.

Batch Control

The Sculpteo batch control option is designed with the vision that 3D printing is now a real alternative to traditional production techniques such as plastic injection. Through the batch control option, we offer a virtual control of our professional 3D printers. When you want to print at least 20 units of the same 3D file in Plastic, the batch control options provide:

An adapted price of production for small and medium series (from 20 to thousands of units)

Control over the 3D print resolution with two possible values: 60μ or 100μ

To use the Batch Control option, you must print your 3D model in at least 20 copies.

Once the new calculated price, you can click on 'Review batch' to see how your objects will be positioned in the printer tray of our 3D printer. You can then edit 3D printing orientation of the items.

The interface will allow you to check the batch that is directly shown in the 3D viewer. Then simply click on 'Customize orientation' to access the manual focus feature of your 3D print.

Automatically, then the interface offers three different orientations. To know the unit price based on one of these orientations you can click on the thumbnail image displayed in the left of the 3D viewer column.

If you want to set yourself the printing orientation as needed, simply position the 3D object directly in the 3D viewer. The axis of the "z" is then symbolized by the blue vertical slider present in the 3D viewer. By moving this slider, you have a section that simulates 3D printing of your file. Once your chosen direction, click the 'Done', our system immediately calculates the unit price for that print orientation in our 3D printer. The orientation of the part has a direct impact on the height of the tank needed to make 3D printing of your series, since the price changes accordingly.

In the example below, we moved the "z-axis", and it calculated automatically the new price per unit.

Orientation

The custom orientation tool, already available with the Batch control option, allows you to choose the orientation of the model when 3D printing. As 3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique, printing layers could be visible depending on the orientation of the object in the 3D printer.

To reduce the effect on the surface, we offer some various finishes that reduce how the layers appear on the surface. For expert users, we add the option to control the layers visibility over the surface of your 3D printed object.

This feature is open to expert users because it takes some experience of 3D printing before being sensible to part orientation and to its effect on the visibility of your object’s layers. To become an expert user, you can visit this page.